Cybersecurity

New Cyber Warning: ISIS or Al-Qaeda Could Attack Using 'Dirty Bomb'

...Much of the cyber threat focused on military, critical infrastructure and commercial targets in the West is developed by so-called Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups allied with and funded by nation state agencies, but not embedded within them. We have seen these often arms-length entities double-hat their activities, conducting likely state-mandated operations while freelancing for personal gain as well.

With this in mind, Stewart has warned that if al-Qaeda or ISIS were able to purchase cyberattack capabilities or even services from such a group then swathes of critical infrastructure could be at risk. Russia and China have such capabilities, but play the balance between impact and implications—causing damage but stopping short of prompting devastating repercussions. Terror groups have no such constraints and often operate at the margins of their capabilities.

While in Israel for a counter-terror conference, Stewart talked with the Jerusalem Post, warning that Israel and the West are vulnerable to the cyber equivalent of a “dirty bomb.” In Stewart’s view, the West continues to underestimate the potential that such an attack might take place and its impact. There is so much focus on Russia, China, Iran and North Korea that we are missing the obvious.

Stewart singled out power grids as a particular danger, and one can only imagine the war-gaming and theorizing around such an attack within Cyber Command during his tenure